


Shark Attack

by Cait_Sidhe



Series: The Accidental Vampire [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Atlantica (Kingdom Hearts), Biting, Blood, Blood Drinking, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Boys Kissing, Concussions, Established Relationship, Fainting, Happy Ending, Head Injury, Healing, Injury, Injury Recovery, Kissing, M/M, Magical Accidents, Major Character Injury, Merpeople, Mysterious Tower (Kingdom Hearts), POV Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Pain, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Post-Kingdom Hearts II, Pre-Kingdom Hearts III, Protective Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Scars, Sharks, Sora Loves Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Underwater, Vampire Bites, Vampires, shark attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25504645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Two weeks ago, Sora accidentally turned himself into a vampire via a botched world-order spell. He and his boyfriend Riku have been trying to figure out how to fix it, but haven’t turned up anything yet.Then Sora has an idea—what if they go to a place where the world-order spell changes their species to something completely different than either human or vampire? That will surely reset things back to normal… right?Unfortunately, a shark has a different idea, and Sora and Riku learn that cure magic has its limits.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: The Accidental Vampire [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1777057
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	Shark Attack

**Author's Note:**

> Me: "I'm gonna write a short 3-4k thing where Sora insists they go to Atlantica to see if that solves his vampire problem, upon which they proceed to be fluffy and have a steamy underwater make-out session."  
> Shark: "That's cute. Let me help with that."  
> And that's how an originally short-and-fluffy fic became a 10k fic dealing with a really bad injury.
> 
> It's tagged pre-KH3, but in the previous entry in this series they did go to Olympus which is technically the start of 3 (although the game calls it 2.9), but the rest of this series is probably going to be before all the other stuff they do in 3, so it's basically still pre-KH3 for now.

“Riku! I have an idea!” Sora suddenly proclaimed, hopping onto the brown leather couch in Yen Sid’s library so that he was sitting up against Riku.

Riku grunted at the sudden weight against him, then set the book he was reading down on his lap while turning to Sora. Sora pecked Riku on the lips (he loved that he could do that now!) and then looked at Riku expectantly. Riku raised an eyebrow. “Well, let’s hear this idea of yours,” he said.

Sora pouted. “You don’t sound very enthusiastic.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “I can’t be enthusiastic about an idea if I don’t know what the idea is.”

“Fine. Atlantica.”

Riku crinkled his brow in confusion. “What about Atlantica?”

“We should go there!” Sora cheered.

“But why?”

“Because we’ll be mermaids—I mean, merMEN—there!” Sora beamed. His plan was foolproof.

Riku still appeared confused.

Sora explained further. “It’ll solve my problem. I know I stayed a vampire in the other worlds even with the world-order spell, but those were all human worlds. Mermaids are a different species, so if the world-order magic changes me to one of them, it’ll change me back to human when we leave!” Yes, it definitely was a foolproof plan.

Riku looked at Sora with an unreadable expression.

“Well?” Sora asked, becoming anxious. Didn’t Riku see the logic in this? It was logical, right? Sora began to doubt the plan; maybe he was being too rash and leaping into things too quickly (that’s what many people told him he often did, after all, so it must be true, right?) “It’s a great plan, isn’t it?” Sora asked, an unexpected note of distress in his voice.

Riku frowned slightly as he thought about that for a few moments. “I suppose it’s worth a shot,” he eventually conceded.

“Awesome! I’ll meet you on the GummiShip!” Sora declared, immediately abandoning his doubt. He jumped up and dashed out of the room.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Sora sat in the GummiShip’s pilot seat with his arms crossed, tapping his foot anxiously. Where was Riku? Didn’t he realize this was important? It had been two weeks since that botched world-order spell had changed him into a vampire (partially, that is: he needed to drink blood—which Riku thankfully offered him—and regular food made him sick, but thankfully those were the only downsides he’d magicked onto himself. And there were plusses! He had night-vision and could sometimes move super fast, although the latter appeared at random times. Plus the fangs were kinda cool, even if they disagreed with his lip-biting habit. The enhanced smell was a mixed bag), but Sora wanted to be human again. He didn’t want to have to drink Riku’s blood to live, and wanted to enjoy treats like sea-salt ice cream without vomiting.

“Ah!” Sora said, abruptly snapped out of his reverie by a light bonk to the back of his head (so, not Donald, as his actually hurt). Sora swerved around, ready to draw the keyblade, then realized who it was. “Ri-kuuu!” Sora whined. “What was that for?”

“Gotta keep on your toes, Sora. Can’t be a keyblade master if you keep spacing out.”

“But I’m not a keyblade master,” Sora pointed out (even though the exam had been super unfair due to it being infiltrated by a madman) as he started the take-off sequence for the gummiship.

“Yet.”

Sora rolled his eyes. “Eh. Symmetrics.” There was no use debating Riku’s unwavering confidence about that (of course Sora really hoped he could be a Master someday, but from Yen Sid’s attitude Sora figured he’d have to wait until the elderly wizard died, which seemed unlikely to ever happen).

“Semantics, you mean?” Riku corrected with a chuckle (he and Kairi were always doing that! Sora was never sure if he should be grateful or annoyed by it) as he buckled into the copilot seat.

“Whatever. Anyway, what took you so long?”

“I had to tell Yen Sid where we were going.”

Sora frowned. “It took that long?”

Riku sighed. “Yeah, you know how he is. Lectured me about not goofing off and having responsibilities and crap. He only agreed to let us go if we turned it into a mission. We’ve gotta communicate with the king there, make sure they’re not having issues with heartless.”

“Oh, they haven’t had issues with heartless in forever,” Sora said happily, deciding not to comment on Yen Sid being a jerk (again. He always was. Usually not to Riku, but as it was Sora’s idea, Yen Sid was probably more annoyed at Sora for ‘distracting’ Riku). Sora engaged the thrusters as the ship took off through a portal into gummispace. “So we’ll get to play around!” Sora began talking quickly, as he often did when excited. “I bet you’ll make a hot merman, just like you made a hot werewolf, and—you know what, you’re just hot in general really. Oh, and maybe they’ll be doing a musical again! Ariel forced me into singing for it last time, and I don’t think I was very good even though she said I was, but even so it was actually pretty fun! You should sing in it too!”

Riku laughed slightly. “I am not singing in a musical, Sora.”

“Aww. But I haven’t heard you sing in years! Besides, you’ve been in a musical before.”

“Yeah, when I was seven, along with the entire class.”

Sora pretended to pout. “But I want to hear you sing.”

Riku fondly sighed. “Okay, then I’ll sing for you sometime. I don’t need to enter a musical to do that.”

Sora blushed. “Oh. I guess that’s true…” Then an idea occurred to him that got him more excited. “I wonder what it’d be like kissing underwater!”

“That’s quite the non-sequitur, Sora,” Riku said with amusement.

“A non-what?”

“It means a random change of subject.”

This confused Sora. “I didn’t change the subject. I was saying how you’d be hot as a merman, and that made me think of kissing you.” He turned to look at Riku.

Riku blinked at Sora. “Okay… but that was before the stuff about the musical.”

“Then the musical was the non-sequencer.”

Riku put his hand on his forehead. “That’s not how it—watch out!”

Sora turned back to the view of the Lanes Between, dodging an asteroid that had snuck up on him (why did they always appear the instant you turned away? The path had been entirely clear prior!) and swearing as he did so. Then he swore again, this time with a whimper of pain.

“Hey, you okay?” Riku asked, sitting up straight and looking over at Sora.

“Yeah, just the stupid fangs again,” Sora explained. He’d bit his lip in concentration, forgetting about his fangs, which had driven through it. Sora used a quick cure spell on it (at this rate, he’d end up having scars there! Well, probably not. But Sora didn’t want to test the limits of magical healing—he knew deep enough wounds could still leave scars, but he had no idea about small ones being repeated over and over in the same place). Sora couldn’t wait for the fangs to finally be gone.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○

The GummiShip landed in the open sea, and Sora immediately cannonballed out of it. Riku followed with a much more elegant dive, then used the world-order magic on them both (Sora refused to do it himself since he’d messed up so badly). Once Sora’s legs had changed into a tail and his gills manifested, Sora propelled himself downwards into the ocean’s depths.

“Isn’t this awesome, Riku?” Sora called, then realized that the silverette was not by his side like he should be. Sora looked back, watching Riku struggling with something; did he do the spell wrong? Sora started to panic as he swam back as fast as he could. “Riku, what’s wrong?” Sora yelled.

Riku crossed his arms as Sora arrived. “Nothing’s wrong.” Was that a blush forming?

“Then why aren’t you following?” Sora asked in confusion.

Riku paused for a moment. Yup, definitely a blush. “I don’t know how to swim,” he sheepishly admitted.

Sora began laughing—at both Riku’s predicament and in relief that that was the only issue.

“Hey!” Riku complained. “I bet you had trouble too your first time here!”

Sora smiled. “Yeah, that’s true. I had to have a mermaid princess help teach me.”

“Well then, it’s lucky I have a prince to teach me,” Riku said without pause as he gave Sora a seductive look. 

Sora felt his face redden, both at Riku’s words and at… Riku himself. Being mermen meant that neither boy had a shirt on—or any clothing at all, for that matter (except for Sora’s crown necklace that Riku had given him. Sora had once asked Donald why it always stayed on through all transformations, but Donald had merely shrugged in response). Riku’s well-defined abs and biceps practically glistened in the water, the sunlight from the surface dancing over him. His silvery hair looked ethereal as it moved slightly with the water. The scales at his hips were a silver to match, progressing in a gradient to an emerald green tailfin that matched his eyes, darker than usual in the water’s light.

“Well, my prince?” Riku prompted, snapping Sora out of his not-so-innocent thoughts (which Riku undoubtedly guessed he was having from how Sora’s eyes trailed over him, but that was okay considering that Riku’s eyes had clearly languidly swept over Sora too). Riku put one hand behind his back and held the other out to Sora, palm up as he slightly bowed, shimmering eyes locked on Sora’s.

Sora was left speechless as he gently took Riku’s hand. Riku’s gripped Sora’s hand tightly and tugged Sora forwards so they were chest-to-chest, the momentum causing them to spin around and drift slightly away as Riku’s lips met Sora’s. Sora returned the kiss with vigor, melting into it as their arms encircled each other, opening his mouth slightly to allow Riku to deepen it, which he eagerly did.

“So, how is it, kissing your boyfriend under water?” Riku asked, voice rough with want, as the kiss unhurriedly broke. It must have lasted a full minute, but neither he nor Sora were out of breath, although their gills appeared to be working overtime.

Sora was dizzy with endorphins. “It was—” he was about to say ‘wonderful’, but something behind Riku caught his eye. “Shit!” Sora yelled.

“Wait what?” Riku said, clearly confused and looking a little put-out.

“No, not the kiss,” Sora realized, talking fast. “That!” He grabbed Riku’s shoulders to turn him around.

Riku’s eyes widened and he visibly paled. “Shit,” he said too.

Sora grabbed Riku’s wrist and pulled him away as the massive shark barrelled towards them, just barely missing the boys. 

“Riku, come on, you gotta swim!” Sora yelled, dragging Riku as best he could.

“I can’t swim yet!” Riku said, clearly panicking.

“Then time to learn quickly! Pump your tail up and down to move—no, that’s too much—okay, just like that. Now keep holding onto me, I’ll navigate.” Sora made sure they both had a good grip on the others’ wrist so as to not be easily separated. It wasn’t that hard to learn to swim as a mermaid, was it? Riku was a good swimmer when he had legs, after all. Sora was sure he’d get it soon.

Sora led them in a zigzag pattern as the shark, though faster, seemed to like barreling in straight lines, always turning sharply after dodging it as it took the shark a bit of time to reorient itself.

“I think we’ll need to fight it,” Riku panted after a while, and Sora had to agree; his gills were overworking themselves with the exherion, and they were slowing down. The shark, on the other hand, didn’t seem tired in the least.

Sora swerved around towards the shark as he came to a stop, silently agreeing with Riku. He used a firaga attack, hitting the shark’s nose and briefly stunning it.

“Fire works under water!?” Riku proclaimed, clearly stunned.

Sora shrugged. “It’s magical fire.” It shouldn’t be that surprising, should it? Sora hadn’t been surprised in the least. “All our spells work here, though some work slightly differently. Thunder is more of a projectile, and water spells are invisible which is cool, but they don’t do much more than push things away.”

“You tried a thunder spell under water? Sora, what if it backfired!”

“Huh? I didn’t use one until Donald did it first. He knows more about these things,” Sora explained. Riku didn’t think him that careless, did he? Sora was aware that water conducts electricity, even before Donald assumed he didn’t know and explained it to him. He wasn’t stupid, despite what people seemed to think (okay, so he could get distracted during conversations, and admittedly could do things without thinking sometimes, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know basic facts)!

“The shark’s recovering!” Riku warned. Ah, yes, speaking of distractions, they probably shouldn’t be having a chat while fighting a shark.

The shark charged again. Riku—now adjusted to swimming—and Sora dodged in opposite directions. The shark turned towards Sora again, and Sora turned to dodge, only to find himself swimming headfirst into a natural stone spire.

“Oww,” Sora said, holding his head, then remembered the shark and dodged out of the way… or thought he had. Instead, he felt a sharp, tearing pain near the end of his tail, and his momentum was halted. Sora screamed and thrashed, trying to get away.

“Sora!” Riku called in a panic, swimming towards Sora, keyblade out. A volley of dark firagas flew towards the shark, who let go of Sora in response and retreated back slightly. Sora tried to swim towards Riku, only to find he couldn’t do so properly. He looked down, seeing a scary amount of blood blossoming into the water from his tailfin, which had a massive chunk missing. Sora began to panic as Riku reached him; the green glowing vines of a curaga spell then circled the tail, causing the wound to close and the pain to subside to a throb. Sora looked back at the tailfin, noting that it was severely torn, yet not actually ripped off like he had thought. It’d been close, though. He wondered if the scar would remain somewhere when they changed back to their usual forms.

“Riku,” Sora said breathlessly, clutching onto his boyfriend and burying his face in his chest as tears formed in his eyes.

“Sora, not the time,” Riku said, face pale as he sharply pulled Sora out of the way as the shark, now recovered, made another pass.

Right, there was a shark after them. They needed a better strategy than this… Oh! “Combine our thundagas to make thundaza?” Sora suggested, still clutching Riku.

Riku looked at Sora in surprise. “That’s a thing?”

Sora shrugged. “Dunno, never tried it before.” When he saw Riku wasn’t convinced, he continued. “If it doesn’t work, it just gets hit with two thundagas anyway.”

“Okay, sure,” Riku decided.

Sora held his keyblade out and gathered electrical energy in the tip. Beside him, Riku mirrored the position. The two tapped the tips of their keyblades together and focused on aiming the attack at the shark. “Thundaza!” they yelled together as they released a huge ball of lightning towards the shark. It exploded around the creature, expanding to release a shockwave around it (it looked so cool!). The shark shook and flipped over, looking slightly charred.

“We did it!” Sora cheered, though he was slightly dizzy and there was a faint ringing in his ears.

“Uh. It’s not moving. Is it dead?” Riku wondered.

“Oh, shoot,” Sora said, voice worried as he drifted towards the shark. He hated to kill anything that was actually alive (even if it was a big evil shark who had nearly killed him). “I thought it would just stun it! I didn’t think that would actually…”

“Yeah, that’s dead,” Riku said. “I can smell it.”

“You with your weird sense of smell,” Sora teased (although he was one to talk), then scrunched his nose slightly. “Wait, I smell it too…” It was more than dead; it was cooked, and smelled deliciously so (not that he could eat it, but still). “Man, if we were back at the Islands right now, there’d be a party!” Whenever one of the fishing boats pulled in a large shark like this, it was customary for them to throw a large feast for everyone they knew.

“Too bad we’re not,” Riku said. “It feels like a waste, leaving it here…”

“Think it’ll fit on the GummiShip?” Sora suggested.

Riku laughed. “Sora, this thing is as big as the ship!”

“Wait,” Sora said, eyes widening. “We have magic pockets! We can—”

“No,” Riku immediately vetoed. “We’re not storing a shark in the magical pocket-dimension… wait, if we’re not actually wearing clothing, where do our items go?”

Sora frowned. “That’s a good question.” He’d never really thought about that before.

“What? You’ve been here before; what did you do then?”

“Uh. I guess they’re invisible? I just would reach to my pocket and things would go in and out? It never occurred to me that I wasn’t wearing any.”

Riku smacked his hand to his face and gave a fond chuckle. “Okay. So, let’s get to the mission; where’s this King at?”

“Uh. Not sure. Can’t think,” Sora said as a wave of dizziness came over him. He gripped Riku’s arm tightly. Sora suddenly felt flush and lightheaded, his brain fuzzy as the adrenaline of the battle subsided. “I don’t feel so good…”

Riku felt Sora’s forehead. “You don’t have a fever. At least, assuming mermaids have the same temperature as humans would…”

Sora’s eyes shifted to the cloud of red that hadn’t yet dissipated, and he became aware that he still had fangs. He could faintly smell Riku’s blood even through the overpowering scent of fried shark… Fuck. He was still a vampire (at least for now. Maybe getting back on the ship would fix that?). Sora tried to tell Riku this, but found he felt too weak to speak, so he listlessly nuzzled Riku’s neck with his head, hoping the silverette realized too as he stopped holding onto Riku, finding he didn’t have the strength. His eyes felt so heavy. Sora desperately tried to stay awake.

Thankfully, Riku caught on, and sharply pulled Sora so he was flush against him with his face against the perfect biting spot on Riku’s neck. Sora could feel and hear the rapidly-beating pulse; Riku was clearly freaking out, but trying to stay calm for Sora’s sake. Sora opened his mouth and pressed down, but couldn’t find the strength. Riku moved one hand under Sora’s jaw and the other to the upper back of his head, pushing down at just the right angle to drive the fangs in. Sora closed his eyes; after a few drops of blood trickled in, he found the strength to lightly suck. As more and more blood flowed into him, Sora’s strength gradually returned…

“Okay, Sora, I think that’s enough,” Riku panted. “I don’t know how much more I can safely give you…”

Sora immediately unlatched his fangs, even though he didn’t feel fully better yet, and looked into Riku’s half-lidded eyes. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to take too much! Are you—”

“Shhh,” said Riku, putting a finger on Sora’s lips. “Yes, I’m fine. A little tired, but that's probably just from the battle, and it’s worth it that you’re safe.”

Sora took a deep breath. “Okay,” he said as he calmed. “Okay. I’m actually still a little tired too. Want to just head back to the ship and take a nap?”

Riku frowned. “But the mission…”

“Well, I don’t see heartless around, so let’s just report the world as safe,” Sora decided. 

Riku shifted nervously. “I dunno…”

Sora rolled his eyes. “Come on. Heartless haven’t been seen here in more than a year. Probably all get eaten by sharks or something,” he joked.

Riku closed his eyes and stilled. “Hmm. I do sense darkness though… feels similar to Ursula…”

Sora shrugged. “She probably has a sister or something. Let’s go,” he insisted. Sora just wanted to sleep. He also wanted to see if he was still a vampire upon leaving… although odds are he would be. If so, they’d just have to try a world where they were even more different (and he had one in mind, one of his favorite worlds in fact). When Riku didn’t respond, Sora wiggled through the water to face him, giving his best puppy-dog eyes. “Pleaaaase, Ri-kuuuu?”

Riku sighed, giving Sora a fond look and said, “Okay, fine.” Sora inwardly cheered; the puppy eyes never failed him when it came to Riku.

Riku began to swim towards the small shadow above, where the ship was parked on the water’s surface. Sora tried following, but instead of going straight ahead, he curved awkwardly, and didn’t get as much power as expected. Right, the torn fin.

Riku, noticing Sora was lagging behind, turned to see what had happened. Sora curved his body to hold his fin, showing it to Riku. Riku gasped in surprise, rushing towards Sora. He immediately tried another curaga, but that didn’t work. “Guess it’s my turn to lead you, then,” Riku said quietly, gently taking Sora’s hand and guiding him through the water to the ship.

The boys clamored aboard the Gummiship, immediately returning to their human-like forms as they crawled in. Riku immediately held onto Sora once they stood up, as he’d wobbled a little.

“Riku, I’m okay,” Sora said. “Well, except that I’m still a vampire and need a nap. But I can stand.” His leg did hurt a lot, but he didn’t want to worry Riku too much. He could look at it later; it couldn’t be that bad, since he could stand.

“Let me see your leg first,” Riku insisted anyway, not letting go as he led Sora to the bench seat along the ship’s side.

Sora sighed, but he complied. It had been his left fin, so he propped the left leg on the seat. He cringed; there was some pain there, and red marks could be seen on the gap between capris and boot. Sora removed his boot and rolled up his magical capri pants. Sure enough, a series of bright red puncture marks splayed across the leg, looking freshly scabbed over and very deep, a line five-teeth thick that extended from his mid-calf, across his ankle, and down to his heel. There was barely any curve, showing how large the jaw had been. Sora twisted his leg to find a matching mark on the other side. Around the marks spread deep bruising, and looking closer, some of the scabs had started oozing little droplets of blood as he moved. It was worse than he’d thought.

Riku lightly touched the scar, and Sora winced. Riku immediately removed his hand. “Does it hurt?” he asked, and Sora nodded (shouldn’t that have been obvious?). Riku used another curaga spell; the wound lessened, most of the bruising vanished, and the scabs became pale points of new skin. Sora was sure there would be a scar; magic could only heal so much. He used his own cure spell then, just to be sure, but sure enough the wound stayed as it was, including the half-healed bruises.

Riku left briefly to grab the first aid kit from the bathroom. He carefully wrapped Sora’s leg in gauze to protect the new skin.

“Oh, we almost forgot,” Sora said suddenly, eyes on Riku’s neck. He moved his hand there. “Cure.” The vampire bite healed completely on the first one, as it had been incredibly weak and shallow compared to usual. Usually Sora’s bites took at least two spells; he tended to get over-enthusiastic.

“Thanks,” Riku said, giving Sora a small smile. He grabbed Sora’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

Sora blushed at the show of affection. “So, as that didn’t work to fix the vampire problem, let’s try a world where we’re a completely non-human species,” he suggested. Specifically, lions. Lions couldn’t be vampires, so then it’d be fixed (a little voice in his head reminded him that theoretically neither could mermaids, but Sora ignored that).

Riku frowned. “I don’t know. I didn’t think mermaids could be vampires, either, but clearly they can be. Besides, we can’t go right now; we need to get you back to the Tower so you can rest.”

“Oh, come on, Riku, I’m fine,” Sora insisted, standing up quickly. He staggered slightly, belying the words; the leg still was incredibly sore.

“Yeah, that’s definitely fine,” Riku said sarcastically, catching Sora and sitting him back down. “Get some rest.”

“But…” Sora’s complaint trailed into a yawn. “I wanna be a lion…”

“I know. We can go be lions in a few days, okay?” Riku gently kissed Sora’s forehead, then gently led him to lie on the cushioned bench. “Rest now. I’ll drive us back to the Tower.”

○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Sora woke to a light jostling of his shoulder. He blinked open his eyes to see Riku; it seemed they’d arrived back at the Tower, so Sora must have slept the entire trip. Sora cautiously sat up, rotating his ankle gently. It felt stiff, probably from the injury being still for a while. He was still a tiny bit lightheaded, but maybe he was still hungry. It’d be fine.

“Does it still hurt?” Riku asked gently.

Sora sighed. “A little stiff, and if I brush up against stuff the bruises probably will hurt. But it’s better than before.” He reached for his boot.

Riku frowned. “Sora, I don’t think you should put your shoe on right now. It could aggravate things.”

“But I don’t want the others knowing how badly I messed up,” Sora argued. They’d either worry a lot or tease him, and Sora wasn’t sure which would be worse.

Riku sighed. “Sora. It’s going to scar, you know that. Unless you plan to have the faeries make you new magical clothing with long pants, and never wear shorts, capris, or swimsuits again, people are going to be able to see it.”

Sora wilted slightly. That was true. Riku was lucky that his scars were in places that weren’t obvious.

Riku ruffled Sora’s hair. “Hey, come on. At least ‘fighting a shark’ is a pretty neat injury explanation. Definitely better than when you broke your arm tripping over a toy back in preschool,” he joked.

Sora laughed. “Yeah, good point.” That had made him feel better (although it was a tad embarrassing Riku had actually remembered that incident). “But, I do still need my shoe to walk, unless you want to carry me.”

Riku grinned. “Okay.” He scooped Sora up bridal style.

Sora let out a squeak. “Ri-ku! I was joking!” he laughed, though he didn't fight the gesture (it was really nice being held by Riku like this; Sora suspected Riku knew he liked it more than he let on).

Riku nuzzled Sora’s forehead and then pecked him on the lips before heading out of the ship and towards the Mysterious Tower.

Axel and Kairi, who had been practicing their keyblade skills outside the Tower, rushed over to the two. “Oh my god!” the latter said in a rushed panic upon seeing Sora. “What happened? Are you okay? Ah, that’s a stupid question, of course not. Will you be?” 

“Relax, it’s not as bad as it looks,” Sora assured her, even though it kinda was (okay, definitely was, as even magic didn’t fully heal it). “It’s mostly healed. I can walk on my own and stuff; Riku’s just being extra careful.” Believable, even if not quite true (even though Sora wanted it to be true); Sora could feel himself getting dizzier, and his thoughts started feeling fuzzy.

Kairi took a deep breath to calm down. “Okay, good.”

“But what happened?” Axel asked.

“Shark attack,” Riku answered. “In Atlantica.”

Axel cringed. “Ouch.”

“We killed it though,” Sora said. “But it was a really big one, so we couldn’t bring it back here.” Plus Sora wouldn’t be able to have any anyway (stupid vampire digestive system).

Axel raised an eyebrow. “Bring it back here? Why would you bring it back here?”

“Tradition on the islands,” Kairi supplied. “If a fisherman catches a shark in their net, they have a big luau where it’s the featured dish.”

“I dunno if it would taste any good though,” Riku mused. “We kinda accidentally cooked it with a thundaza spell…”

“A thunder spell? But weren’t you under water?” Kairi asked.

“Thundaza?! With a z?” Lea said in amazement. “When did you learn THAT?”

Riku shook his head. “We didn’t. Apparently combining two thundagas makes that. And as to the underwater bit, spells work differently there—it was more like a giant self-contained electric bullet.”

“Oooh. Neat!” Kairi said. “I want to try! Next time you go to Atlantica, I’m going along!” she declared.

Sora laughed. “I think I’m gonna stay away from Atlantica for a long while.” That had been the second time a giant shark had attacked him while in Atlantica, and he didn’t want to make it a third, especially considering how it had ended this time.

“We should go report to Yen Sid,” Riku said.

Sora pouted. “Do we have to?” He hated giving reports to Yen Sid after every mission, but the old wizard was stubborn about that (once Sora tried to send only Riku there, and Yen Sid had gotten angry, saying everyone on a mission had to report together. It was stupid and annoying. Sora liked the old wizard less and less with every interaction).

“Unfortunately.” Riku sounded just as enthusiastic as Sora.

Kairi giggled. “Are you going to carry him all the way up?” she asked Riku.

Sora answered that. “No. I can walk once we get inside. Riku just thought putting my shoe on would aggravate it.”

Riku carried him all the way up anyway (though a bit embarrassing, Sora wasn’t complaining), briefly stopping by their room to put away Sora’s shoes. Sora tried to stay in the room, but Riku insisted they both go to report in together. Which, Sora knew, was the logical thing to do (again, Yen Sid was a stickler for protocol, and wouldn’t take anything short of unconsciousness as an excuse for not reporting in immediately with all party members present). Still didn’t mean Sora had to like it. 

Outside Yen Sid’s office, Riku finally put Sora down. Sora winced slightly as he put pressure on the leg but he was stable on it. It was just so sore. Plus, he still felt slightly lightheaded and dizzy, he realized; had he not had enough blood?

“Ah, welcome back, Sora, Riku,” Yen Sid said as they entered. Then, he noticed Sora’s injury. “You are hurt. Were there heartless or other enemies in that world after all?” he asked, not even bothering to ask if he felt okay or anything despite the large bandages wrapped around the leg (as expected. Sora’s wellbeing wasn’t a high concern to him, Sora had concluded a while ago).

“Not exactly. Just a big shark,” Sora said. A big, mean, persistent shark. “I hit my head on a rock when I tried dodging, and he grabbed my tailfin. There’s a big bite wound on my leg.”

“It’s mostly healed, but he’ll need a few days rest,” Riku added in.

“I see. That is unfortunate,” Yen Sid said, fairly dismissively. Sora frowned slightly at that, feeling a bit irritated (even though he had known the wizard wouldn’t care at all). “Riku, you look very pale. I assume that Sora had to take more of your blood than usual to recover from the injury?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, that is a bit of an inconvenience,” the old wizard said. (Sora inwardly bristled at that. Him doing what he had to to stay alive was an inconvenience, was it?) “I had planned to send you back with Mickey to the Realm of Darkness, but I suppose you must rest for a few days as well.” Ah, of course, it was all about Riku (as always).

“And then we’re going to go to the Pride Lands!” Sora said, barely maintaining his best grin (he was coming close to getting angry enough to yell; he had to calm down…).

Yen Sid raised his eyebrows slightly. “And why would you be going there?”

“Well, being a merman didn’t change me back to human, but that was half-human, so maybe that’s why. Pride Lands changes you into a lion, though, so—”

Yen Sid interrupted, shaking his head slightly. “No. Mermaids are still a different species; for the spell, how human they look makes no difference. You have tried your experiment. I cannot permit you to go on any more recreational trips while there are more pressing matters.”

Sora finally snapped. “More pressing matters?!” he yelled. “So, what, me getting back to human doesn’t matter, huh? It’s just recreational, trying to fix this? You’re content to let me be a vampire forever, as long as your other agenda items get ticked off? Well, I certainly don’t want to be a vampire forever! If you don’t want me here, if I’m just too much of an inconvenience, then fine, I’ll go solve this on my own.” Sora swerved around and quickly strode out the door, staggering a little when he opened it. Vaguely he heard Riku call his name as the door closed behind him, though it felt further away than it should be.

As he climbed down the stairs, Sora kept a tight grip on the railing that usually wasn’t there; the Tower must have realized it was needed. His leg hurt a whole lot more than he had realized, and Sora started to find himself struggling to breathe with the exertion it took to move it. Adrenaline helped him move quickly at first, but it soon waned and his pace slowed until he was standing clutching the railing in a deathgrip as he tried to stay upright. He felt dizzy and lightheaded, and his brain felt fuzzy, like he was in a fog. Could pain do all this? He’d never had an injury a good curaga spell or two couldn’t immediately fix to the point of little pain. Was this how Riku felt after taking the hit from Xemnas for Sora?

Sora vaguely heard quick footsteps and someone calling his name, but the sound felt tingling, like it was vibrating and ringing. He tried to take another step, but stumbled. Sora braced for the fall, only to feel himself quickly be caught by a strong arm he recognized wrapping itself around his shoulders with the other hand on his chest, stabilizing him.

“Sora, what’s wrong?” Riku asked worriedly. 

Sora looked up into Riku’s teal eyes that were fraught with concern. He could barely focus; Riku’s face kept getting blurry or appearing in multiples. “It hurts,” Sora said faintly, barely a whisper and voice rough. Then, everything went black as he collapsed into Riku’s arms.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○

As Sora blinked back to consciousness, he felt hands gently threading through his hair. Was what going on? He couldn’t think well, probably due to the throbbing headache. Slowly he processed that he was in a bed (his own? Probably his own), and that the person next to him was Riku. It was really bright in the room, even though the lights were off. 

“Sora! You’re awake,” Riku said, seeming relieved. “I was so worried. What happened? Are you feeling better?”

The questions were gentle and probably in a normal-paced and normal-volumed voice, but they seemed fast and slow at the same time, both uncomfortably loud and strangely soft. Sora took a moment to process things.

“Sora?” Riku prodded, sounded worried.

“Ummm. Yeah? ‘ink so… feel weird…” Sora slurred. “ ’Ead hur’s.”

“Your head hurts?” Riku clarified, and Sora nodded, only to close his eyes as he felt dizzy.

Riku quieted for a moment, staring at the wall as he processed this. “Let me see your eyes,” he said, and Sora complied. Riku sighed. “They’re dilated. Sora… when you dodged the shark, you slammed into the wall first,” he said slowly. “Did you hit your head?”

“Shar’?” Sora asked, then thought about it. “Oh, righ’, shar’… ummm… I thin’ so…”

“Shit,” RIku swore. “I think you might have a concussion; they can take some time to appear, and the symptoms match. That’d explain you yelling at Yen Sid, too.”

“I yelled a’ Yen Sid?” Sora didn’t remember that.

“Yeah. Here,” Riku said, putting his hand to Sora’s forehead. “Curaga.” Green translucent vines wrapped around Sora’s head before vanishing. “Feel any better?” Riku asked.

Sora did, at least slightly. “A little,” he told Riku, finally not slurring and processing things at a normal speed. “My head isn’t pounding, and I can think better. Everything’s still a bit hazy though. All blurry and foggy…” he tried sitting up, only to immediately fall back again. “Still dizzy too, and there’s this weird ringing whenever sound happens.”

Riku sighed. “Yeah, looks like we caught it too late; should have done a full body heal to be safe, rather than focused on the leg… speaking of, how is the leg?”

Sora thought about that for a moment. He wiggled his ankle. “Still sore,” Sora concluded. “But not as much pain as before, when I was walking.” Then a thought occurred to him. “How long was I out? Do Kairi and Lea and Yen Sid know?”

Riku shook his head. “Not yet. You’ve only been out a few minutes.”

“Oh, good,” Sora said. “I don’t want to worry them more.”

Riku frowned. “Sora. We have to let them know. Concussions last for days; they’re going to notice something’s up.”

“Then I just won’t interact with them,” Sora said stubbornly.

Riku sighed. “That’ll just make them more worried and suspicious… wait here, I’m going to tell Yen Sid, at least. That way, you won’t get in trouble for being so irritated and yelling at him.”

“I still don’t remember doing that,” Sora said.

“Yeah. Short-term memory loss can be a symptom too,” Riku pointed out. “It wasn’t that bad, though. And he probably had it coming, anyway; he doesn’t treat you so well.”

Sora nodded, looking away. “He’s always so disappointed in me. Like, I can’t seem to do anything right in his eyes. He treats me like a broken tool.”

Riku nodded. “I noticed. I’ll talk to him about that too.”

“No, don’t!” Sora said loudly, sitting up and grabbing Riku’s arm, feeling dizzy at that. “Then you’ll get in trouble. Just, don’t say anything. It’s fine, I can deal with it. I’m used to being a screw-up.”

Riku looked at Sora with a surprised expression. “You’re not a screw-up. Where’d you get that idea?”

“Huh? What idea?” Sora asked, feigning memory loss hoping the conversation would get dropped.

It worked. Riku sighed. “Nevermind; just rest for now, okay? Before I use a sleep spell on you,” he teased.

Sora smiled as Riku helped him lie down again. “Yeah, yeah. Love you.”

Riku leaned down and kissed Sora gently on the lips. “Love you too.” He stood up and exited the room.

Sora heard muffled sounds coming from the other side of the door; Riku must be talking to someone. Sora couldn’t make out the words, though.

After a while, as Sora began to drift asleep, the door opened. “R’ku?” Sora mumbled, opening his sleepy eyes.

“Nope, guess again,” chimed a delicate voice.

“Oh! Hi, Kairi!” Sora said, now more awake. He sat up, then his hands flung to his abdomen as a wave of nausea overcame him.

“Oh, hey, take it easy,” Kairi said, darting over and putting a hand on Sora’s back. “Do you need anything? Are you going to throw up? I can help you to the bathroom.”

Sora shook his head, then closed his eyes as that made him dizzy. He forced the urge to vomit down; he’d throw up blood, which although for him was normal, Kairi definitely did not know that and would freak out. It’d settle on its own, he hoped, or at least until Riku returned… Sora briefly considered that maybe he should tell Kairi about the vampirism, then decided against it. It’d only make her worry (besides, it’d get fixed eventually—or, better yet, subside soon on its own; aftereffects from such spells were supposed to be temporary after all, knock on wood. Yeah, no reason to tell her).

“Hey. You probably should lie down, if moving’s causing that much distress,” said Lea, who had followed Kairi in.

“I know,” Sora mumbled. He hated feeling so helpless (even though he was used to it; it seemed he was always needing help from people. Couldn’t he do one thing right?).

Somehow, Kairi caught on to this train of thought. “I know it’s annoying; but everyone gets sick and injured at times. Let us take care of you; you’ll be running around again in no time, I’m sure!”

Sora smiled. “Thanks, Kairi,” he said heartfully. She was always so nice to him. “So, anything new with you two? I feel like we haven’t really talked much all week.”

“That’s because you and Riku are always running off together to fool around,” Lea teased.

Sora blushed. “That’s not true! Everyone’s been on missions or doing different training! That’s all it’s been.” (Okay, maybe it was somewhat true, although the actual reason for them running off together after missions was for Sora to eat… which, admittingly, did lead to other things too).

Kairi giggled. “Sure, Sora, whatever you say.”

“A-anyway, tell me what you’ve been up to,” Sora said. “Any missions?”

“Not really,” Lea answered. “Yen Sid still won’t let us go on any alone, and Mickey and them have been busy… although we did take a trip to Twilight Town while you were in Atlantica. Wanna tell them about that, Kairi?” he said in a teasing voice that confused Sora.

Kairi’s face reddened. “Th-that! That was!”

“Kairi?” Sora asked, concerned. “You’re all red. Do you have a fever?” He reached his hand up to feel her forehead.

Kairi batted Sora’s hand away and looked away, reddening even more. Oh… blushing? Kairi was blushing? “Wait…” he grinned conspiratorially. “Did you meet someone?”

Kairi shook her head. “N-no! It’s… it’s not like that…”

“Oh it’s definitely like that,” Lea said, grinning. “Our little Kairi here has a big fat crush.”

“Do not!”

“Right. Kairi, it was so obvious.”

“But I’ve never had a crush on… on… um. At least, I don’t think so…” Kairi looked off into the distance with a slight frown. Sora recognized it as the look she got when reviewing things about the past. “Well, maybe… huh.”

Sora beamed at her. “So? Who is he?”

Lea chuckled. “Guess again.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s just say Kairi might have had a revelation about herself,” Lea said, giving Sora a wink.

“A revelation…? Oh my gods. Kairi!” Sora started to try to move to hug her.

“Whoa there, easy,” Lea said, grabbing Sora’s shoulders to keep him sitting.

“Well? Who is she?” Sora asked excitedly.

Kairi turned to Sora, blushing. “I don’t know. I just know she was… pretty.”

“Pretty enough Kairi was staring at her for a few minutes while we were at the Bistrot, totally zoned out with her face on fire,” Lea supplied. “When the girl noticed, Kairi squeaked and ran. I had to pay for the entire dinner!”

“I was nervous!” Kairi said in defense, then blushed. “Besides, you offered to pay anyway,” she mumbled.

Sora blinked and looked between the two. He was very confused, to say the least. Had they been on a date? It sounded like a date, and Kairi was reacting as such. The Bistrot was a fancy place, and expensive; usually friends didn’t go there alone, especially with only one paying. But then, Lea was teasing about the girl, so clearly okay with that. Sora had also been, up until this point, certain Lea was gay. He’d said as much himself, and had been… not quite dating, but extremely intimate with, Roxas (which is why Sora had woken up from the year-long sleep suddenly knowing a lot of sex-related things when he hadn’t even had sex ed in school). Sexuality was on a spectrum though; it was very possible to be almost completely gay but still on rare occassion be attracted to someone of a different gender… 

However, Kairi being attracted to a girl hadn’t been a surprise to Sora. He had known she was bisexual since they had visited Olympus after he’d become a vampire (Kairi’s attraction to both Meg and Hercules had been completely obvious, and Sora’s creepy vampire ability to smell arousal—that he really wished would go away—had confirmed such), even though she had been entirely unaware of it until, apparently, today.

“What’s going on here?” Riku asked as he entered the room and saw everyone’s expressions.

Sora bluntly explained, “Lea and Kairi went on a date, and during it Kairi realized she likes girls.”

“What?!” Riku exclaimed in shock, then stared at them for a moment before concluding, “You’re joking.”

Sora shook his head, then grabbed it as another wave of dizziness came over him.

Riku darted over to Sora, sitting next to him and putting a hand around his shoulders. “You okay?” he asked gently, and Sora replied by leaning into Riku’s side and making a small whining noise.

Riku then turned to Kairi, whose face was the color of a ripe tomato. “Explain,” he said seriously.

“It wasn’t a date,” Kairi said petulantly, embarrassed. 

“Just friends,” Lea confirmed. “Kairi wanted to try the new Bistrot, that’s all. I paid because, well…”

“I just didn’t have enough munny,” Kairi mumbled. “It’s really expensive there.” Oh. Sora felt bad about that; he should have realized. Of course she wouldn’t have much, considering she hadn’t been fighting heartless and nobodies much at all, whereas they’d all been fighting hoards of them for years, amassing all the munny they dropped (why and how heartless and nobodies dropped munny and items was beyond Sora).

“I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have teased you,” Sora apologized.

Kairi shook her head. “You didn’t know… plus, it is kinda more of a date location in the evening, which we hadn’t realized; it’d have been better to go for lunch…” She clapped her hands together once. “Oh! You and Riku should go there for dinner sometime!”

Sora and Riku both blushed. “Um. Yeah, maybe,” Sora said, although he knew they wouldn’t (stupid vampire digestion). Or maybe they would; Riku would be able to eat something, at least. They technically hadn’t been on a formal date, unless one counted missions (which were definitely fun to be on together, probably more than a formal date would be when Sora thought about it. But Riku might prefer something less life-threatening; perhaps a walk along the beach, if not a restaurant? He’d ask Riku about that later... Wait. Why was Sora discounting the restaurant entirely? This condition wasn’t permanent!).

“Boooo. You’re no fun,” Kairi said. 

“You just wanted to see us dress in fancy clothes,” Riku accused.

“Oops, busted,” Kairi said, sticking her tongue out at him. Kairi did love fashion; Sora was reminded of when they were kids and she’d try to get the boys to play dress-up with her (which they’d usually semi-reluctantly cave in to after being bombarded with her persistent insistence).

“All this talk of food is making me hungry,” Sora complained, as his stomach actually growled… wait. Shit. Being hungry now? With the others around?

“Didn’t you already—” Riku began to ask, then stopped himself. Sora realized what he had been about to say; yes, Sora technically had eaten today. But saying that would imply he usually only ate once a day, which although true would be suspicious and worry the others. 

“I’ll make some chicken soup!” Kairi declared, luckily not realizing Riku had been talking. She jumped up and made for the door.

“But I don’t want chicken soup,” Sora said petulantly. He wanted Riku’s blood (not like he could tell her that). 

“Pancakes, then,” Kairi decided. “With chocolate chips.” Sora’s mouth watered at that, but he couldn’t have those either…

“Whoa, Kairi,” Lea said. “Pancakes for someone who’s sick? Stick with chicken soup or oatmeal or something.”

“You know what, I’m not hungry after all,” Sora decided to say, only to be betrayed by a rumble from his stomach.

“Okay. Pancakes it is,” Kairi said, turning on her heel and leaving.

“Wait, Kairi!” Lea called, hurrying out after her. “Pancakes are not a good idea!”

Sora looked at the door as it closed. “Well, that was easy…” he turned to Riku with a big grin, showing his fangs. “Can I eat now?”

Riku frowned. “You’ll end up throwing it up with whatever food they make you. You know they’ll force you to eat it,” Riku pointed out.

Sora looked down. Right, that was true. But he was hungry… oh, wait. He couldn’t eat anyway. “Nevermind then,” he sighed. “Besides, I already took a lot earlier.”

Riku stared at Sora for a few moments, clearly thinking about it. “I’ll be fine. Here, take a little nibble now,” he decided. “It might help with the concussion, who knows. Later tonight you can have some more if you end up needing it after the other food, okay?”

Sora nodded. “Okay.”

Riku pulled his sleeve up. “Use my arm,” he said. “They’ll probably be fast; Lea can cook super quickly with his fire magic, especially if it’s just pre-made soup. I saw some cans of it in the cabinets earlier.”

Sora nodded, slowly reaching to grab Riku’s arm; he didn’t want to move too fast again, in case his head spun. Riku soothingly combed his other hand through Sora’s hair. Sora bit down slowly at first, but after tasting the first drop of blood he quickly drove his fangs in deep and sucked eagerly; he really had been hungry. He must have not replenished enough earlier.

“Hey, Sora, that’s enough,” Riku said gently, pulling his arm away; Sora tried to follow. “Sora,” Riku said, a fond smile on his face.

Sora unlatched his fangs. “Sorry.” He grinned playfully; he actually did feel a bit better. Things were still hazy, but he was less lightheaded and dizzy; maybe he’d lost more blood in Atlantica than he’d thought.

The door creaked open; Sora quickly used his sleeve to wipe his mouth of blood, and Riku quickly pulled his sleeve down to hide the bite mark.

“Chicken soup!” Kairi declared, entering with a large bowl of the aforementioned soup and followed by Lea. Sora tried not to cringe; it must have been an entire multiple-serving can of soup in the bowl. “That’s an awful lot,” Sora commented.

Kairi frowned. “But you always eat a lot.”

“Not when I’m nauseous,” Sora said, even though the small amount of blood had fixed that. He would be again after the soup though, unless he could somehow convince Kairi it was unneeded. A distraction would be good…

And a distraction was just what conveniently occurred, in the form of Donald and Goofy rushing into the room. Sora grinned broadly in response (barely remembering to not smile too wide though, due to the fangs—he especially didn’t want Donald finding out how badly he’d messed the spell up, as the duck would surely rub it in his face) as the two ran over and pulled Sora into a group hug.

“Guys! What are you doing here?” Sora said, laughing as they released him (and glad that moving didn’t make him very dizzy anymore).

“We heard you were hurt, Sora!” Goofy proclaimed. “Mickey needed to do King stuff, but we rushed over as fast as we could.”

Sora blushed. He hoped he wasn’t inconveniencing them. “You didn’t have to do that; I’m fine. It’s just a concussion.” 

“You need to be more careful!” Donald immediately chided, as expected (he could have at least started with saying hello, or asking how Sora felt, before scolding him).

“I WAS careful,” Sora huffed. “Not my fault a rock decided to be there when I tried to dodge.”

“If you’d paid attention, you’d have known the rock was there!” The duck argued.

“Yeah, well, I was kinda busy watching the giant shark that was attacking,” Sora snapped, nearly growling as irritation flared up, then immediately became embarrassed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to yell,” he mumbled, seeing the duck’s surprised expression.

Kairi giggled. “He snapped at Yen Sid pretty badly, too, I heard. Apparently concussions can do that.”

Donald sighed. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled either,” he conceded (which Sora was shocked at; he couldn’t once remember Donald apologizing for yelling).

“We just worry,” Goofy supplied.

“I know,” Sora said (everyone always worried about him… maybe in this case it was warranted, but sometimes it felt like they didn’t trust he could handle himself.).

“You hurt your leg too?” Donald asked, eyes falling on the gauze.

Sora sighed. “Yeah. I was trying to dodge the shark when I hit the rock, and he grabbed me. I was a mermaid when that happened; he got my tail, and when we changed back to human that translated to my leg. We used a bunch of cure magic but it didn’t eliminate it.”

“Let me see it,” Donald demanded, probably assuming he could do more than they’d already done. He never trusted either Riku or Sora’s magic (Sora didn’t know why. His magic was perfectly fine. It was weaker after the exam, true, but he could still do a cure spell just fine). Sora complied, unwrapping the gauze with a wince; the leg was still sore thanks to the large patches of yellow bruising around the healed-over puncture-wounds. 

Almost the entire room gasped; none of them had seen it yet except Sora and Riku. Kairi’s eyes had even comically widened as she put her hands over her mouth. Okay, so maybe it looked pretty bad still. 

“Wak!” Donald squawked. “Why didn’t you heal it better?”

“We did our best!” Sora defended. “We did one during the battle, while still mermaids, and then more once we got back on the ship and changed back to human.”

“Well you should have done more during battle then! These things are time-sensitive!”

“Don’t you think we know that?! It’s kinda difficult to get a lot of spells in when a gigantic shark is attacking and you’re nearly unconscious from blood loss!” Sora bit back a growl (being careful not to actually bite, because of fangs). As Donald replied, saying something Sora didn’t catch, Sora had a sudden urge to bite Donald—not for blood (would duck blood even do anything?) but for tearing his throat out in a vicious attack. Sora was stunned out of his anger by that vampiric instinct, unaware that he had to apparently be extra careful about his anger (and not just because of rage form… oh no. What would rage form be like as a vampire? Sora hoped he’d never have to find that out. As long as he turned back to human quickly, it’d be avoidable… but if he didn’t? No, Sora would not think about that; he refused to believe this wouldn’t go away soon.)

“Sora, pay attention!” Donald whacked him on the head with his staff.

“Oww!” Sora said, putting his hands on his head and glaring at the duck. Surely hitting him wasn’t necessary! Donald did that to Goofy too though, and probably others… well, whatever. Sora was used to it.

Riku, however, was not used to it, and raged at the duck. “He has a concussion! Why the hell would you hit him like that!? Do you do this all the time?” He looked like he was holding himself back from strangling the duck.

“He does it to everyone,” Sora mumbled, trying to calm his boyfriend, though if it escalated into a fight Sora would definitely be on Riku’s side.

Sensing the tension of a brewing fight, in a clear attempt to assuage the argument by switching topics Lea interjected, “Hey, weren’t you going to try healing him again?” 

Riku backed down, Donald mumbled something indistinct, and Sora’s fangs, which had started aching in anticipation of a fight (since when did they do that? Maybe that was because it was a fight brewing between living beings?), settled. Donald attempted to heal the leg wound more, but as expected, nothing happened.

Thankfully in all the commotion, the chicken soup was forgotten.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Four days later, and many cure spells from Riku ‘just-in-case’, Sora finally felt fully better. He made his way to the library, where he knew his boyfriend would be studying, just as he had before their Atlantica trip. Sora hopped onto the couch, pressing up to Riku’s side and grinning broadly at the silverette.

Riku glanced at Sora, then raised an eyebrow. “Why am I getting a bad feeling from that expression?”

“So. I was thinking…” Sora began. “Since I’m feeling better…”

“Is this another one of your ‘foolproof’ plans?”

“Ri-kuuuu! You know what I want to do! You said we could go in a few days, a few days ago!”

Riku blinked at Sora in confusion. “Uh. Go where?”

“Pride Lands! To be lions!”

“Oh, that… Sora, Yen Sid said that won’t be any different than being mermaids.”

“MerMEN, Riku. And what does Yen Sid know, anyway?”

“Um. Nearly a century of studying magic?”

Sora scoffed. “Not this magic. He admitted before that he’d never seen something like a supernatural species change before. So, maybe being lions will work!”

Riku sighed. “Still, he said we couldn’t go. And I’m pretty sure he has tasks he wants me to do once you’re feeling better…”

“Okay. So I won’t be feeling better if he asks.”

“We can’t lie to Yen Sid, Sora. He knows. He always knows.”

Sora frowned. “He’s visiting Merlin today, right? So we’ll go now, and be back by the time they return.”

Riku bit his lip, thinking.

“Pleaaaaaaase, Ri-kuuuu?” Sora pleaded, giving the silverette his best puppy-dog face. 

Riku gave Sora a soft smile and a small chuckle. “Okay, fine. Let’s go.” Yup, as expected—the face never failed.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Sora sighed as he knelt on the kitchen floor with a scrub-brush, thinking that this was pure torture. Did he and Riku really have to scrub the whole Tower’s floors without magic? It would take forever!

“Sora, they’re not going to get cleaned by sighing,” Riku said from across the kitchen, though he let out a sigh as well. 

As it turned out, becoming a lion did not reverse the vampirism after all. Sora was also extremely distractible as a lion cub (more than usual, that is, which even Sora could admit was impressive), and so was Riku, which led them to chase a butterfly and then wrestle with each other, tiring them out so much that they fell asleep under a tree. They returned to the Mysterious Tower long after a very angry Yen Sid returned from his meeting with Merlin, upon which they received dish duty as punishment, which was quickly changed to scrubbing floors as Sora initially tried doing the dishes via a spell he’d seen Merlin use that spectacularly failed. Even Yen Sid’s magic hadn’t been able to fix all the broken and warped dishes.

“But Riku, it’s so much work!” Sora complained. “Besides, I’m hungry!”

“We’ve only been working for ten minutes, Sora…”

“Exactly!” With a speed no human could achieve, Sora moved to kneel in front of Riku.

Riku sat on his heels and looked at Sora in surprise. “Do you want something?” he asked.

Sora grinned ferally, letting his fangs show. “I told you, I’m hungry.”

Riku visibly gulped, and Sora nuzzled against the silverette’s neck, though didn’t bite. Not yet. He could smell Riku’s arousal at the gesture (a vampiric ability that he loved at times like this, but hated otherwise). “S-sora,” Riku said breathlessly, then he actually tried to argue. “A-as much as I’d like to feed you, I don’t think the floor of the kitchen is the best place for it…”

Sora gave Riku the puppy-dog eyes (they never failed him when used on his boyfriend, particularly when he was in this state). “Ri-kuuuuu…”

Riku bit his lip, looking into Sora’s eyes, clearly grappling with whether to get back to the chore or act on his obvious desire for Sora. The latter won out (as expected), and Sora felt Riku’s lips entwine with his own. Sora grazed Riku’s bottom lip with a fang, and eagerly licked at the mouthwatering drop of blood that bubbled out (he wouldn’t be surprised if he’d started to drool)…

“Heh-hem.”

Sora and Riku flew apart, both looking up at Yen Sid with wide eyes, caught in the act. Yen Sid pointed at Sora’s abandoned scrub-brush and bucket, and Sora sheepishly hurried back over while Riku picked up his own brush.

Sora would just have to get his snack later that night… vaguely he wondered when he’d started happily looking forward to drinking Riku’s blood rather than being ashamed and embarrassed about wanting it. Had he actually started to enjoy being a vampire? Sora shook the thought away. No, he wanted to be human. The spell would wear off, and he could go back to eating regular human food and never drinking delicious (no! No, it wasn’t delicious, that was the vampire instincts, he definitely didn’t actually like it) blood again. The trips to Atlantica and Pride Lands hadn’t turned out any results, and the vampirism still showed no signs of wearing off, but that didn’t mean it was permanent. He couldn’t become accepting of his condition before they’d tried everything they could to fix it.

After all, Sora definitely wanted to be human again… didn’t he?

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! If you've been enjoying this series, you'll be happy to know that I already have the fourth installment mostly finished (this idea came to me while working on that one)—and it'll have smut. Hopefully it'll be posted by next weekend! (Although I have 7 other stories in the works, 4 which are novel-length, so we'll see what happens).


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